A non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of all student loan debt through activism, education, and legislation;
because student loan debt is dangerous to the US economy and to the health and well-being of individual Americans and their families.
CRYN JOHANNSEN, Founder & Executive Director

Their graph says that more of the people who file for bankruptcy today have degrees, compared to 5-10 years ago. Yet, I wonder if this doesn't merely reflect that more people have degrees than 5-10 years ago.

CBS Evening News had a story about student loan indebtedness in the past several days. I believe they mentioned the one trillion dollar aggregate figure. Not a substantive story, just anecdotal, but visible to the person on the street, finally.

@Anonymous 2:05 PM - I think it suggests that wages for college grads have declined over the past 5-10 years. Plus, tuition has skyrocketed. We go to school, rack up lots of debt, and graduate. When we go looking for jobs, we wind up at a StarButts or somewhere else that doesn't pay well. That's if we're lucky.

Many people who are college educated are unemployed, living at home, etc.

The situation is dire. That's why I keep arguing that there is a full-blown student lending crisis.

@Anonymous 6:27 PM - if you mean student loan debt discharges, then the answer is no. The piece is about the fact that more college educated people are filing for bankruptcy. As you know, it's basically impossible to discharge loans (federal or private).

Older folks (55+) who have college degrees are struggling more. That's troubling, because they can't make up for the financial losses at that age.

"cally, credit cards and other unsecured loans force most people into bankruptcy, Linfield said. But she thinks hefty mortgages and falling home values contributed to the spike in filings among wealthier households and college graduates."

Oh, yeah! It was the house with the two-car attached garage that put me over the edge! HA!

I saw that article this morning and thought of you! While I'm glad the issue is being highlighted (that college degrees have essentially become worthless,) I was disappointed that they didn't mention the elephant in the room: that college grads have enormous student loans and those CANNOT be discharged. It also didn't speak to whether or not student loan payments were a factor in making these graduates have to resort to filing bankruptcy. Another half-hearted education/debt story by the media. What. A. Surprise.

The entire debt mess was started when a few medical students declared bankruptcy for no good reason the moment they graduated. Instead of addressing their abuse of the system, they made ALL student loans non-dischargeable...

Cryn Johannsen

Cryn Johannsen, Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters, Inc., is the author Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas, and a Lifetime of Debt(New Insights Press, 2016; available now on Amazon inpaperback andKindle).

She has spent many years in academic environments, giving her an insider's understanding of the varying forms of educational institutions and how they function. Ms. Johannsen worked for an academic publishing company, but now advocates for individuals who are struggling or unable to pay off their student loan debt on Capitol Hill.

In addition to her previous employment, Ms. Johannsen has been a student at multiple levels at multiple institutions, beginning at a community college, graduating with honors from the University of Kansas, and receiving MAs from both the University of Chicago and Brown University (where she also participated in an exchange scholar program with Harvard). She is an experienced researcher and instructor, and has focused her own education on the study of History and the Social Sciences.

Ms. Johannsen is available to give talks and do workshops on this critical topic.

Ms. Johannsen's book has been reviewed by the New York Review of Books in Rana Foroohar's article "How the Financing of May Lead to Leader." In addition, intellectuals, such as Henry Giroux and Andrew Ross endorsed it.

This blog, All Education Matters, will be digitally archived by the Library of Congress in November of 2017.

About me

Author of Solving the Student Loan Crisis: Dreams, Diplomas & a Lifetime of Debt (New Insights Press) - now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Founder and Executive Director of All Education Matters(AEM), a 501(c)(4); I am a freelance journalist for The Huffington Post, The Loop 21, and Hypervocal. My work has appeared in USA Today, Truthout.org, The New England Journal of Higher Education, etc.
Recipient of journalism grant from the Economic Hardship and Reporting Project (EHRP) to cover a story about suicides and student loan debt (published by the Huffington Post and on the EHRP site; edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Garvy Rivlin) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-cryn-johannsen/student-loan-debt-suicides_b_1638972.html